Wednesday, June 30, 2010

My mom and I put this garden in while she was here in April. It has flourished and the esperanza is finally blooming. It died all the way back after the freeze last winter and we transplanted it here. It is surrounded by yellow lantana.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Thursday, June 17, 2010

I was upstairs for about 30 minutes this afternoon while the dogs were outside. When I went down to feed them dinner there was blood all over the porch and Zion was licking his foot. I noticed one of his toenails was perpendicular to the direction it should have been in.

IJG and I rushed him to the vet. They had to pull the entire nail off. It might not grow back because of how much came off with the nail.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Sunday, June 6, 2010

IJG now waves to people, the dogs, or anything else he feels like waving to when he decides it’s appropriate. Often we will try to get him to wave, he refuses, and then we’ll catch him waving furiously in the rear view mirror while driving somewhere. Now when I sing the “open, shut them” song he opens and shuts his hands and claps but never both at the correct times, and sometimes only one or the other. He doesn’t “put them in your lap” at the correct time yet. He also likes to clap while breastfeeding. If I put my hand out and say "Hi 5" he will slap my hand. He mimics several noises we make and loves to stick his tongue out when we do. I also taught him how to get off the couch or bed by going down feet first. He loves doing this on his own. I’ve been blowing his mobile to see if he would mimic me and he has started blowing at it also. He does a lot of talking now and often babbles for minutes on end. He still makes many of the same sounds plus a lot more gibberish. I got him to start saying mama more by making an “Mmmm” sound over and over. It worked and in the last few weeks he has started saying mama all of the time. He also started pointing at things. We did not purposely teach him this and we’re not quite sure how/why he learned to do it.

5.30.10

His favorite activity is to walk with his wheeled toy. He does numerous laps, always with his mouth open and his tongue hanging out. When he gets to a wall or object, he just keeps pushing and ramming the toy into it. He also likes to push my kitchen and dining room chairs around just like his toy. He loves riding his Wheely Bug and holds on surprisingly well when we push him. He loves to be chased and if I get behind him and say “I’m gonna get you” he will grin and speed up his crawling and wait to be caught. He also loves playing with his books. He pulls them all off of the shelf and then sits and flips through them. His favorites are a set of three with flaps to lift inside. He very gently lifts the flaps and looks under them. He still tries to eat the books but he knows he is not allowed. I’ve been reading to him for several months now and he finally will pay attention and sit still…if he’s in the mood. He gives kisses quite frequently now. They always start with him opening his mouth wide, yelling, grabbing your face and pressing his open mouth to your cheek. He likes rides through the grocery store in the grocery cart if he has a balloon to hold and shake and smile at. If I wear him he tries and succeeds in grabbing all of the produce I get near.

5.29.10

I have been leaving his fruit and vegetable purees much chunkier and he has gotten used to eating them this way. This month I’ve introduced honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberry, asparagus, potato, cauliflower, and quinoa. We also added a liquid multivitamin supplement. He still isn’t interested in finger foods very much. He has had barley teething biscuits, a rice cracker style baby biscuit, and cheerios. I give him cheerios every afternoon. He will crunch them a bit between his front teeth, but mainly gets them spitty and then spits them out. After about 3 he just throws them on the floor. He doesn’t do much with fruit or veggie finger foods either but will taste things if I hold them for him. He is now exclusively using his sippy cup to drink water or milk when away from me. This is a pic of him eating his first teething biscuit (in the grocery cart).

5.15.10

IJG moved up to the next class at his school last week. In the infant 3 classroom his lunchtime is pushed back to 11:00 am and snack at 3:00 pm, so now I only have to pump breast milk once a day at work and can feed him myself at 3:00 pm. They have taken away his morning nap and he is now only put down at 12:00 pm. Instead of a crib he now sleeps on a low cot, and hasn't been sleeping well. He's only napping for about 1.5 hours and they have to put him back to sleep several times during the nap. At home I've still been giving him a morning nap because he doesn't really seem ready for just one. He is only at school 3 days a week as of last week (I am just working longer hours during those 3 days). He is doing better with consistently sleeping from around 8:00/8:30 pm till about 6:30 am and having breakfast then. He is still breastfeeding 5 times a day and having 3 meals of solids. He is eating larger portions at his meals. For breakfast he will eat an entire kiwi, small peach, or half a mango, or similar amount of fruit mixed with 3 tbsp of oatmeal cereal. For lunch he’ll have about 6 oz of vegetables and protein (lentils/garbanzo beans/soybeans) and for dinner he has a similar amount of vegetables and mixed grain cereal.

IJG has only been sick once this month, but has suffered with a chronic ear infection the entire time. I’m pretty certain he has had the same infection since he was about 6 months old. He gets better, and asymptomatic, but the fluid and sometimes infection remains and as soon as he gets sick again it flairs up. We took him out of school for 2 weeks to see if the infection would clear with time, but it never completely went away. We took him to an ENT to get his hearing tested last week but the results were inconclusive. He has been seeing a chiropractor twice weekly for a few weeks now and she is trying to help boost his immune system and help get the fluid in his ears to drain. Here he is being a good patient waiting at his ENT visit.